More than 100 workers seek pay after YWCA closes

May 10, 2013

Written by

Tammy Stables Battaglia

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

More than 100 YWCA employees in Wayne County are seeking the rest of their pay after the YWCA of Western Wayne County closed and ran out of money for paychecks.

The YWCA of Western Wayne County in Inkster closed as planned April 30 because of funding issues, board member and Royal Oak business lawyer Melissa Demorest said Friday. Only partial paychecks were issued May 3 because the agency ran out of funds, she said. The agency intends to pay the rest of the money, but Demorest said she could not provide a date.

The agency ran Head Start and another government-funded preschool program, Demorest said. Operation of the programs — and the schooling of 694 students enrolled — was transferred to two other social service agencies, she said.

“The kids are still being taught in the same classrooms that they were, just a little different staff,” Demorest said Friday, adding that many of the agency’s 120 to 130 staffers are still teaching the same classes. “Some of the staff is still there, but they were hired by the other organizations.”

The programs are now run by Wayne Metro Community Action Agency and Starfish Family Services, she said.

Employees were notified of the April closing in January.

But unions representing the Head Start workers said in a statement Friday that employees were told they would work for the Y through mid-June. The union also berated officials for employees being “shortchanged.”

“My family depends on these paychecks to make ends meet,” Jeanine Berry, a teacher with Head Start, said in a statement issued by United Early Childhood Employees (UECE) and AFT-Michigan. “It’s time for the YWCA of Western Wayne to do the right thing. The last thing we need are more broken promises.”

Demorest would not discuss details of why the YWCA was shuttered or the agency’s revenue stream.

That angers union members.

“Employees and students have a right to know what’s going on,” Berry said. “It’s time for the YWCA management to face the music, and come clean with everybody about what’s really going on with their financial situation.”